"Donald R. Brown is the Grandson of Mamma and Pappa Brown. Donald is the forth child (of nine) and his parents are William ("Buster") and Georgia E. Brown."

Donna's August 7, 2012 group email:

"Dear family members,

You are all invited to this 'overdue' celebration of my dad, Dr. Donald Randolph Brown, Sr. DDS, as the 1st African American to be admitted to, and graduate from, UMKC (University of Missouri at Kansas City) School of Dentistry. As you may recall, we established a scholarship in memory of Dad upon his passing in 2009.

At this event the family will also be awarding the first scholarship in his name. The scholarship will be awarded ANNUALLY in perpetuity. We want to say 'THANKS, AGAIN!" to those of you who so generously supported the fund."

The above addresses should be hyperlinked. If they are not, place your cursor over the web address then press and hold the Cntrl button followed by a left click on your mouse.

Don Jr's September 24, 2012 group email:

"In addition to being able to see most of the unveiling ceremony on the links that Tony sent over below, I will give you my 'debriefing.'

Overall, things went very well. There were two events that we attended that day. First was the unveiling of the plaque in honor of dad which the you tube video links record. The other was a dinner where we met with the first recipient of dad's annual scholarship.

The unveiling ceremony was very nice and well attended. In addition to dad's children and grandchildren about 50 others attended, including Aunt Marguerite, Cousins Tina and Valerie, many Brown family friends, about 5 of dad's actual class of 1965 classmates, one instructor who personally instructed dad, and others who have been affiliated with the school before and since. Many memories were shared about dad. They range from how handsome and well dress he was to how exceptional his clinical skills were. One former instructor noted that dad was particularly good with children and as such he encouraged dad to go into pediatric dentistry. In general, everyone said that he was well liked.

In addition, Dr Tom Jones attended. He was the 2nd African American graduate from the dental school and he came out a year after dad. He has always said that he could not have made it through without dad's help. Interestingly, before we even entered the dental school, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Scott, introduced himself to us and identified himself as the "fourth" African American graduate of the dental school. I should note that Dr Scott graduated with the class of 1972 which is seven years after after dad graduated. Dr Scott is a friend of Uncle Glenn and he shared with us his memory of dad coming to his high school on career day to talk about dental school.

The annual scholarship dinner was very nice as well. There were about three hundred people in attendance. The gathering was made up of scholarship donors, recipients, and alumni. Dad's was one of many scholarships being awarded. When the dean of the dental school addressed the audience she shared dad's story (i.e. being the 1st African American to matriculate and his not being included on the graduation program), then she introduced his family. During the dinner we met with this year's recipient of dad's first scholarship. Her name is Caresa Doakes and she is one of only two African American third year dental students at UMKC."

Don Jr's October 4, 2012 group email:

"All,

I wanted to share a link to a nice article regarding a ceremony we attended a couple of weeks ago at the UMKC - School of Dentistry. The ceremony was for the unveiling of a memorial plaque in honor of dad and after the ceremony we attended a scholarship dinner where we met with the first recipient of dad's annual scholarship (thanks again to all of you who helped fund it).